Crawley Town boss warns goal-shy players they 'can’t be scared to make mistakes'
Colin Kazim-Richards has told his players they can’t be scared to make mistakes after defeat at Bristol Rovers.
Reds lost 3-1 to the Pirates and were 2-0 down at half-time after goals from Ellis Harrison and Mees Rijks. Sub Louie Watson pulled one back for Crawley but after missing a number of gilt-edged chances, Yusuf Akhamrich sealed the win with a break away goal six minutes into added time.
But Reds missed a host of chances and showed a lack of killer instinct as they failed to take advantages of the openings created.
And in his post-match interview, Kazim-Richards warned his players they can’t be scared to make mistakes.
"I don't think it's like over-caring and I think they do believe,” he said. “What it is, is when you're in this situation, you don't want to make a mistake, but you can't be scared to make a mistake.
"If you're not willing to make the mistake, more often than not, not willing to make the mistake means you don't actually take the chance.
"So if you don't take the chance, then you're not going to score. And it's a very unique, weird situation unless you've been in it.
"I understand it, but it doesn't matter. We cannot be scared to make mistakes in the right areas. We can't. We have to risk certain things in the right areas to get the outcomes that we want and that's all of us. And they know that.”
And the Reds boss added he thought his side had the better of the game for large periods. He said: “The scoreline, it says 3-1, and that's all that matters is the scoreline, right? But in large spells of that game, we were the better team and more often than not, if we continue to do that up until the goal, but be better in the boxes, then we will get the results that we are working towards.”